Russia suggested it would not restructure Iraq's debt. Canada threatened to stop sending aid to Baghdad. The European Union said it would study whether global trade rules had been violated.
Across Europe, response was swift and angry Wednesday to the US order barring firms based in important allied countries -- opponents of the Iraq war -- from bidding on Iraqi reconstruction projects.
Germany, another leading opponent of the war, called the decision "unacceptable," and government spokesman Bela Anda said it went against "a spirit of looking to the future together and not to the past."
Critics said the policy could discourage countries from helping to rebuild Iraq and complicate US efforts to restructure Iraq's estimated US$125 billion debt, much of it owed to France, Germany, Russia and other nations whose companies are excluded under the Pentagon directive.
French President Jacques Chirac, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Russian President Vladimir Putin all raised the contracting issue during previously scheduled telephone calls with President George W. Bush on Wednesday, White House spokesman Sean McCormack said.
Bush "indicated he'd keep lines of communication open," McCormack said -- but other White House officials made it clear the administration has no intention of reconsidering the policy.
The White House says countries wanting a share of the US$18.6 billion in reconstruction contracts in the 2004 US budget must participate militarily in the postwar effort.
"Prime contracts for reconstruction funded by US taxpayer dollars should go to the Iraqi people and those countries who are working with the US on the difficult task of helping to build a free, democratic and prosperous Iraq," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.
RSS